COURTESY PHOTO
The state Department of Transportation will run the "Walk Wise Hawaii" campaign ads through August in 16 theaters across the islands.
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Safety ad to hit theaters
The state campaign targets moviegoers with a 10-second spot
Hawaii filmgoers will receive grim reminders of pedestrian safety in theaters this summer.
On the big screen, a victim's chalk outline will appear next to a crosswalk accompanied by the message, "Every 10 days a pedestrian is killed in Hawaii. Do you want to be responsible?" It is followed by the tag line, "Stop for pedestrians."
The state Department of Transportation will run the "Walk Wise Hawaii" campaign ads through August in 16 theaters across the islands at a cost of $8,500. A TV and radio crosswalk campaign that aired in the spring cost $100,000.
"Our goal for this ad is simple but vital: Drivers must stop for pedestrians," Transportation Director Rod Haraga said. "Thirty-one pedestrians were tragically killed in 2004. That number rose to 36 in 2005. That's one preventable death every 10 days."
The advertisements target younger drivers who do not watch TV or listen to the radio, knowing the audience is going to get into their cars after the movie, transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said.
The 10-second ads flash on and rotate with other ads two to three times before the movie begins.
The ads encourage drivers to obey a new law that requires them to stop rather than yield to pedestrians, and for pedestrians to cross in crosswalks with the light.
Ishikawa stressed the need for drivers and pedestrians to follow the law, rather than point fingers at each other.
"The crosswalk is not an automatic force field," Ishikawa said. "If a pedestrian sees a driver not paying attention, maybe he or she shouldn't cross at that time."
And drivers making a turn are often so fixated on merging into traffic, they need to look in the opposite direction to make sure no pedestrians or bicyclists are coming the other way.